Fireflies
by Bane-Dane
Summary: It was just past midnight before Kairi felt it was save to emerge from her bed, and make her way over to the Secret Place on Destiny Island. Someone had been leaving her flowers and she was on a mission to find out who it was. Spoilers for 358/2 Days.


A/N: Yeah, first time writing Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, so it's probably not going to be very good. I have not idea why I chose to write about Kairi either. Hopefully I have her characterization right. The title has nothing to do with the story either. I was just listening to Fireflies by Owl City. Enjoy.

Hanakotoba prompt challenge at FFnet's PoT forum

* * *

It was just past midnight before Kairi felt it was save to emerge from her bed, and make her way over to the Secret Place on Destiny Island. For the past few days, ever since her return from the World That Never Was with her friends, Sora and Riku, someone had been leaving flowers in the Secret Place with a tag that had her name on it. The flower changed from day to day. It started with a single blood red rose the followed a sasanqua, a sweet pea followed, and, just yesterday, a sunflower had been placed.

Wanting to find out who this mysterious flower stranger was, Kairi had decided upon setting out at night to wait for this person until daylight. It would have been smarter to wait all night, but her parents would never allow her to stay the night the island. It "wouldn't be safe" for her. Sure. She was a big girl now. He could handle one night on an island.

Grabbing her sneakers, Kairi carefully tiptoed past her parent's bedroom, and down the old wooden steps. Making sure to skip the fifth and ninth steps, those were the ones that squeaked, Kairi landed on the bottom floor with a soft thud. Remaining still for a moment, she listened for any sign that her parents had woken before slipping on her sneakers and out the front door.

It wasn't until her house was out of sight that she began sprinting to the dock. Usually, whenever she went to Destiny Island, Riku and Sora were with her, and they were the ones to row the boat. This time, she was the one to battle the current. Several times she believed the current would whisk her out to sea or back to the mainland. After a rough battle with the sea, she managed to dock the boat.

Collapsing on the dock, Kairi struggled to regain her breath and relax. Never, she swore, would she row by herself again. It was way too much work for a girl of her muscular strength to handle.

When her breath returned to its normal pace, Kairi stood and ignored the pounding pain in her arms from rowing. Resuming her sprint, Kairi ran towards the hidden entrance of the Secret Place. Not wasting a second, she hurried through the bushes, not worrying if there were going to be scratches upon her arms later. Situating herself between two large rocks in the Secret Place's only cavern, Kairi began her long wait.

As the hours passed, and no person entered the cave of the Secret Place, any hope that she would meet this flower stranger disappeared. Perhaps this person knew she was waiting and wouldn't appear until she left. Maybe Sora or Riku were the ones ho left the flowers and couldn't reach the island because she had taken their boat. Maybe it was all just a sick joke.

As her patience grew smaller, Kairi rose to leave when she noticed the fireflies floating around her head. The glowing creatures floated around the air that surrounded her. Their lights mesmerized her as each turned on and off at random intervals. It seemed so….magical.

"You know, legend says fireflies created fire from nothing." A familiar voice said.

In the entrance to the Secret Place stood a person Kairi could have sworn she met before. His hair was encased in a plain black beanie, hiding it from view. Emerald green eyes were clearly exposed with the stranger's hair isolated in the hat. His clothes weren't anything special, a black hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, but what he was holding was of interest to Kairi. It was a small white flower that the pale hands of the stranger held. It was her flower man.

"What makes you say that?" even if she had found out who had been leaving her flowers, it didn't mean she couldn't be wary of him.

"I'm not too sure. Can't a person share a little bit of random knowledge with another? Or is that now against the law?"

"You're strange," Kairi said picking her words carefully.

"And that only took you all of two minutes to notice. I'm surprised and here I was thinking you were on the mentally slow side. Did one of your little friends realize my gifts were for you or did you do that all on your own?" Kairi flushed at the comment this man made. She was not retarded!

"I should have said you were rude and a complete and utter asshole!" temper flaring, Kairi pushed past the stranger to leave. There was no way she could handle talking to this guy another second. "Nothing you can ever say will make me want to talk to you."

"Passion, reliance, joy, and respect."

"What?" Okay, that was something she wanted to talk to him about.

"Those are traits I believe you possess," The stranger held out the white flower to her," today's is the xeranthemum. It means eternity."

Puzzled, Kairi found herself asking," But how is eternity a trait I hold?"

"It's more of a metaphor of how I would like to be your friend for eternity."

"That's almost sweet," Kairi said as she received the flower. "What's your name, kid? I'm sure you know my name already."

"I have a name, but I'm not going to tell you. Until you can figure it out, you can call me Lea." The boy introduced himself.

* * *

Days passed slowly after Kairi met Lea in the Secret Place. During the day, she would hang out with Riku and Sora until the sun set. It was always at that time that Lea appeared along with his little entourage of fireflies that always surrounded him. During these meetings Lea always had a xeranthemum with him. It seemed as though he had given up describing her with flowers and favored his little "metaphor" flower.

Despite thinking Lea was a "complete and utter asshole", he wasn't that bad when Kairi was able to sit down and have a civil conversation with him. So far, he had only given her facts that she had to piece together to figure out who he was. Lea's favorite element was fire, he had traveled to different worlds, he had met her on Destiny Islands' main land, he had fought along Sora, and he grew up being close to twelve other people.

Even with the information had been supplied to her, she could piece everything together. She had met plenty of people on the main land so any memory dealing with the mainland didn't help her. Anyone could travel from world to world if they had the equipment to, so it ruled that hint out. Who really cared about a person's favorite element? Growing up knowing twelve people? It was rubbish! Who cared how many people someone grew up knowing. The only hint worth knowing was about him fighting along side Sora, but Sora couldn't recall fighting with someone named Lea. Every hint was a dead end.

On the seventh day she knew Lea, Kairi's frustration was growing. She was tired of being forced to run around in circles for someone she hardly knew. As the sun set, fireflies began to emerge, almost as if from thin air, and soon Lea emerged from the tropical trees to sit next to Kairi on the dock.

"I still don't know who you are." Kairi said after silence had settled around them for several minutes.

"Then I shall give you two more hints." Lea stood up. "Fireflies are said to create fire in legends, like a pyro. Got it memorized?"

Before she could turn around and call out the name Lea now went by, he was gone and all that remained was a single xeranthemum.

* * *

Trudging up the steps of her house, Kairi sighed loudly. Lea, no Axel, would always be an arrogant ass. No matter how many times he died hen would always be one.

Opening and slamming the front door behind her, Kairi expected to hear her father shriek at her to respect their house and to be lectured about how she shouldn't take her anger out on inanimate object. To her luck, her mother met her.

"What's wrong dear?" the elder woman asked.

"I want to burn this until its nothing but ash," Kairi held up the flower Axel had left behind for her mother to examine.

" My, oh, my, a xeranthemum. I haven't seen one of these beauties since we left Radiant Garden. In hanatokoba it means cheerfulness under adversity." A gentle smile formed on her mother's face as she returned to the kitchen.

"But I was told it means eternity." Kairi followed her mother.

"It does in Radiant Garden's flower language but here we use hanatokoba." The elder woman explained.

"That's weird. Why doesn't Destiny Islands call its flower language Destiny Islands' flower language?"

"I'm not quite sure." Kairi's mother said after a moment." Perhaps this world is just unique enough to have its own word for its flower language."

Not wanting to speak, Kairi looked down at the xeranthemum in her hand. She never thought about flower language before Axel came. She never would have known that this tiny flower meant cheerfulness under adversity.

Kairi's head perked up at the thought. Didn't she try to always remain positive in difficult decisions? Even if it had been difficult, she had always persevered. Never allowing such a thing as misfortune drag her down into the depths of sorrow.

Kairi decided she would keep the xeranthemum. After all, it was one of her traits.


End file.
